Here we go again (a) in the spoken-word tour of the Blogosphere and (b) in the soaring of spirits around the Internet in general. Isn’t it beginning to feel just a little like 1994 again?
There are three conversations here with the penetrating, poetic and passionate David Weinberger. He is not just an exemplary blogger with a firm grip on the technology and on its political, cultural, even philosophical implications. He is also a prophetic book writer, often cited by reviewers as the Marshall McLuhan of the Web. First, with co-authors, was The Cluetrain Manifesto (1999) and “95 Theses” about the implications of Web connectivity for business and consumers. More recently came Small Pieces Loosely Joined (2002)–an argument that the Web is transforming our ideas of Space, Time, Knowledge, Culture, Community and–someday–Truth and Beauty. David Weinberger has his doctorate in modern philosophy from the University of Toronto, so he is at home with cosmic ideas. He would tell you straight out that the Web is one of the big ideas of all time–that we’re standing at a breakpoint in all human history.
Part One: The Internet Reflation (about 6 minutes) is on the general transformation of everything by the Web–no matter the crash of Internet stocks.
Part Two: The Media Turned Upside Down (about 9 minutes) continues the conversation on Blogging and the institutional media. Knowing the right list of 100 bloggers is more important than reading the New York Times, David Weinberger says (and he’s still a Times reader and fan.)
Part Three: The Dean of Bloggery (about 7 minutes) considers the gusher of commentary around Howard Dean’s guest shot on Larry Lessig’s page. Dr. Dean surely knew how to make the right first impression there. “The Internet,” he opened, “might soon be the last place on earth where open dialog occurs.”
And here we are–with the producer Mary McGrath in the middle– recording the Weinberger conversation at Bob Doyle’s skyBuilders headquarters in Cambridge, MA. Bob Doyle gets a lot of the credit here, and the photo credit, too.
“Chris, Mary and David”
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